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Feds in six regions to get higher locality pay in 2019

By Sherkiya Wedgeworth

Apr 19, 2018

Federal employees in six metropolitan areas will likely begin receiving higher locality pay in 2019 to account for large pay gaps with non-federal employers.

The Federal Salary Council last week voted to add six new special pay rate localities to the President's Pay Agent: Birmingham, Ala.; San Antonio, Texas; Burlington, Vt.; and Virginia Beach, Va., Omaha, Neb.; and Corpus Christi, Texas.

According to the American Federation of Government Employees, all of these areas have pay gaps that are more than 10 percentage points above the pay gap for the “Rest of U.S.” locality area, which is the current criteria for establishing new pay localities.

"The council heard from federal employers in three locations – Charleston, S.C.; Nashville, Tenn.; and Imperial County, Calif. – who are finding it almost impossible to recruit and retain the workers they need because federal wages are not competitive," an AFGE statement notes, adding, "Yet none of the areas qualify for their own pay locality under the current methodology."

It plans to review the current methods used for determining when areas outside of existing pay localities should be added to nearby localities or turned into their own pay locality.